With the 'enhanced' NFL concern about concussions - the Monday Night game between San Francisco and Chicago was played with both teams starting back-up QB's account the normal starters having received concussions in prior games.

It will be interesting to see how many players will be held out of how many games when everything gets counted up at the end of the season.

The fact that this is even happening is proof that the helmet manufacturers have to get busy on the R&D to provide better safety systems for the players heads.

Sometimes I think the hard plastic on the pads and helmets actually makes the game less safe. When guys wore leather pads and helmets, the padding could absorb some of the impact. With guys running around with hard helmets, and those sometimes ridiculous face masks, I believe they feel "armored" and initiate more violent contact than would be possible with a softer shell on their pads.

It's more likely that guys are bigger and stronger, increasing the g-forces that players, especially their brains, are exposed to.

I guess that's the price they are willing to pay. I believe the average NFLer only lives to be 53. I was so dissappointed when Barry Sanders retired seemingly at a young age, seems smart to me now.

Sometimes I think the hard plastic on the pads and helmets actually makes the game less safe. When guys wore leather pads and helmets, the padding could absorb some of the impact. With guys running around with hard helmets, and those sometimes ridiculous face masks, I believe they feel "armored" and initiate more violent contact than would be possible with a softer shell on their pads.

It's more likely that guys are bigger and stronger, increasing the g-forces that players, especially their brains, are exposed to.

I guess that's the price they are willing to pay. I believe the average NFLer only lives to be 53. I was so dissappointed when Barry Sanders retired seemingly at a young age, seems smart to me now.

And now for the 2015 Season we have a number of younger players calling it quits after a very short time in the league (1 to 5 years) and these are not the 'practice squad' type players that would have short careers in the NFL anyway.

With Deflategate taking up much of the talk around these parts in the New England area, let's talk some real football. The New England Patriots took a hit this offseason with the losses of Browner and Revis at cornerback. However we have a veteran in Terrel Brown, and a second year corner who is ready to make that next step in being a great corner in Malcolm Butler. We have unknowns there, but not the rest of the defense. I think we will be ok in the secondary, top 15, while we have a top 5 front seven and should do well top 5 in stopping the run with our great linebacking core and our young and athletic defensive line Ninkovic is the oldest at 29-30 years old. We have newly acquired Jaabal Sheard who is an outside linebacker who rushes the passer. We have Jerod Mayo coming back from inury, we have Donte Hightower and Jamie Collins in the linebacking core, we have Dominque Easley, Malcolm Brown, Chandler Jones and Ninkovic as our defensive line with Alan Branch and Sealver Silinga as our DTs.

Finally our offiense lost Veeren and Conolly while we got Scott Chandler from Buffalo. Our tightend group could be the best in the league. Our passing game in the red zone just got so much better and our running game is beast with Blount and Gray in the backfield. Our widereceiver corps is better after a year of winning the superbowl so our chemistry is that much better, depending upon Brady's suspension and what happens we could be looking at a 14-2 record this year winning the AFC championship game and heading to our seventh Superbowl. Andrew Luck and the Colts might have a say in meeting the Pats in the AFC championship game, but they haven't improved their defense enough to stop the Patriots running game. Plus Andre Johnson and Frank Gore are good weapons, but they don't scare anyone like they used to.

With Deflategate taking up much of the talk around these parts in the New England area, let's talk some real football. The New England Patriots took a hit this offseason with the losses of Browner and Revis at cornerback. However we have a veteran in Terrel Brown, and a second year corner who is ready to make that next step in being a great corner in Malcolm Butler. We have unknowns there, but not the rest of the defense. I think we will be ok in the secondary, top 15, while we have a top 5 front seven and should do well top 5 in stopping the run with our great linebacking core and our young and athletic defensive line Ninkovic is the oldest at 29-30 years old. We have newly acquired Jaabal Sheard who is an outside linebacker who rushes the passer. We have Jerod Mayo coming back from inury, we have Donte Hightower and Jamie Collins in the linebacking core, we have Dominque Easley, Malcolm Brown, Chandler Jones and Ninkovic as our defensive line with Alan Branch and Sealver Silinga as our DTs.

Finally our offiense lost Veeren and Conolly while we got Scott Chandler from Buffalo. Our tightend group could be the best in the league. Our passing game in the red zone just got so much better and our running game is beast with Blount and Gray in the backfield. Our widereceiver corps is better after a year of winning the superbowl so our chemistry is that much better, depending upon Brady's suspension and what happens we could be looking at a 14-2 record this year winning the AFC championship game and heading to our seventh Superbowl. Andrew Luck and the Colts might have a say in meeting the Pats in the AFC championship game, but they haven't improved their defense enough to stop the Patriots running game. Plus Andre Johnson and Frank Gore are good weapons, but they don't scare anyone like they used to.

Patriots vs Seahawks in the superbowl once again this year.

It'll be funny when Jimmy Garapolo plays great, and then the pats peddle him for a first round draft choice.